ATHENS, Ga. -- While the manhunt for a man accused of killing an Athens-Clarke County Police Officer continues, the parents of the slain officer are left grieving the loss of their beloved son.

Senior Patrol Officer Elmer "Buddy" Christian was shot and killed Tuesday while investigating a carjacking. Investigators are calling the killing an assassination, saying he was ambushed in his patrol car.

"We prayed and prayed and said 'please don't let him get that job,'" Officer Christian's father Bud Christian recalled. "We did not want him doing such a dangerous job. But, he loved it so much, and wanted to do it so badly, that finally we came to the point where we said 'we'll just turn it over to God.'"

While local, state and federal authorities search for Jaime Hood, the accused gunman, Christian's parents have been left to grieve the shocking loss of their son.

"He said, 'I love you mama.' I said, 'I love you, too," Officer Christian's mother Carolyn Christian recounted to 11Alive News reporter Jerry Carnes Thursday. "That's the last words he said to me. I still remember that, over and over."

The parents of Buddy Christian say their son viewed his job as a calling. Through their grief, they're ready to offer forgiveness to their son's killer. "The Bible says 'vengeance is mine says the Lord,'" Bud Christian said. "We don't want revenge. We want justice."

"We appeal to this man to turn himself in," Bud Christian said of Hood.

"I love him so much," Carolyn Christian said of her son through tears. "I'm going to miss him."